This invention relates broadly to the art of vehicle headlights and more specifically to a headlight in which a light bulb is mounted from a rear side of a reflector through an opening in the reflector and then rotated less than 180 degrees to slide radial tongues of a plate shaped socket of the light bulb between the reflector and a ring-formed element mounted on the rear side of the reflector.
Such a headlight for a vehicle is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,682,274 to Freudenreich et al wherein a ring formed element of sheet metal is disclosed. This ring formed element has bent tabs at its outer rim which are inserted into openings on a reflector's rear side to be self-clamped thereto. The glass cylinder, or globe, of a light bulb to be mounted is inserted through an opening of the reflector and radially extending tongues of a socket of the light bulb are placed into recesses of the ring formed element. Thereafter, by a small amount of clockwise rotation of the light bulb and the socket the tongues can be rotated under spring arms which are also cut about the inner circumference of the ring formed element. At the end position of the light bulb, the spring arms are biased against the tongues and pressed thereon so as to hold the socket and the light bulb against the reflector. With this arrangement, the mounting and dismounting of light bulbs is quite uncomplicated and easy since the ring formed element which holds a light bulb in place after it has been rotated does not have to have its position moved during mounting of the light bulb.
In this regard, for each of the headlights described in German Offenlegungsschrift No. 1 902 362 and Offenlegungsschrift No. 1 539 393, when changing a light bulb, a wire formed element must be removed from its holding position. However, when manufacturing the headlight of U.S. Pat. No. 4,682,274 there is a great deal of wasted sheet metal from forming these ring formed element. In any event, during manufacture, not only must the ring formed element be stamped out of sheet metal, but additional bending steps are also necessary. Still further, when these ring formed elements are stored, they can hook together.
It is, therefore, an object of the invention to provide a vehicle headlight ring formed element for mounting a light bulb to a reflector which is easy to use, which does not produce a great deal of waste during the manufacture thereof, and which is constructed of a spring material.